"Acorns, acorns, acorns!" Squeaks a squirrel, scampering off in a grey blur. I sigh; animals really are boring ain't they? I'm walking down the fields by the side of the main river. At least the animals aren't as boring as Belleville. I'm the last boy in town.

It sucks to say the least.

"Last boy!" Tweets some kind of bird from a far off branch. I scowl, our village wouldn't be like this if the women hadn't of cursed us. They're all gone now anyway, burnt alive on the accusation of being witches. That means my mom's gone too. But she wasn't a witch at all, she was nice, sweet and kind and she loved me and my pa, but the council didn't care, they still killed her. All that's left is me and my pa. And because there's no women, there are no kids, so that means I'm the last boy in the whole of Belleville. The last boy on this whole planet to be precise.

Belleville is the only settlement on Earth No.2, and it's a pretty crap settlement. With a population of 100 males and falling everyday, humans are damn near extinct here. I have no one to talk to, to play with, so I spend most of my time here; in Belleville woods, by myself. Even worse, there is no privacy in Belleville, no secrets. Everyone knows everything. Why?

'Cause everyone can hear each others thoughts.

You hear people speaking without even moving their lips. Anything that is in their minds is spoken. There is no escape. You can't control what you think, can't stop thinking and you can't drown it out with loud music. Your thoughts reveal the true you. It shows you who are the cowards, the brave of heart, the insane and the sane.
But that's a normal thing for me; Frank Anthony Iero Jr, the second Frank and only child of the Iero family.
There is no such thing as silence in this world, you think when you sleep, when you're awake and the only true time you stop thinking is when you are dead.

The rest of the men in Belleville don't like my thoughts. I don't know why. It's not as if I think of bad things all the time. Dad says that I think too much about swearing and my 'Distasteful' and 'Inappropriate' music. That is what makes the other men stare at me. Dad doesn't think I'm wiered; just different. He says mom was different, but in a nice way, a kind way, not in the way the other men see me. Dad says he sees a lot of my mom in me. That makes me smile when he says that. My dad is a good man, a nice man. He would never lie to me. Not that he could, 'cause I would hear the truth in his thoughts.

I walk slowly alongside the river, careful so I don't trip on the rabbit warrens. Rabbits have nothin' much to say either. All they say is "Carrots!" or "Fox!" or "Hop!"
This. World. Is. Crap.

Off scarpers a rabbit, "Hop! Hop! Hop!" It says. I aim a kick at it. It misses on purpose. Suddenly,
"Silence!" Squeals a rabbit. I stop. No. There's no such thing as silence. Not here. Not on this planet. Never was. Never will be.

I listen.

There it is. Like a tear in all the commotion and rucus around me. One big patch of quiet.